Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-04-01

men In pursuit of him, he bad hidden in the
cave OF Engedi, near the coast of the Dead
| Sea. Utterly tagged out with the pursuit. as
| you have often been worn out with the trials
of life he sat down and cried out: mo man
| cared for my soul.n
If you should fall through a hatchway, or
! SIP from scatfolding or drop through q
| skyhght, there would be hundreds Of people
| who would come around and pick up your
body and carry it to your home Or to the
hospital l saw great crowd Of people in
the street, and | asked What is the matterln
and found out that poor laboring man had
| tallen under sunstrolle; and all our eyes We're
filled with tears at the thought of his dis
tracted wife and his desolate home.
we are all sympathetic with physical disas-
Ter, put now little sympathy for spiritual
| woes! There are men in this house who have
| come to mid-life who have never vet been once
| personally accoSted about their eternal wei
| fare. A great sermon dropped into an andi-
| once of hundreds of thousands will do its work:
but if this world is ever to be brought to God
| 1t will be through little sermons preached to
| private Christians, to an audience of one
The sisters letter postmarked at the
| vilage-the word uttered in your
hearing, half of smiles and half of tears-the
| rehglous postscript to a business letter--the
card left at the door when you had some kind
OF trouble-the anxious look of some one
across church aisle while al earnest sermon
, t"as being preached swung you into the King
| dom of God But there are hundreds of peo-
| pie in this house who will take the word that
| David used i'll the past tense, and employ it
In the present tense, and cry out: mo man
cares for my soul"
| You feel as you go out day by day in the
| tug and jostle of life that it is every man for
himself. You can endure the pressure of
| commercial affairs, and would consider it al
most lmpertinent for any one to ask you
whether you are making or losing money.
| But there have been times when you would
| have drawn your check for thousands of dol
lars if some would only help your soul out of
its perplexities. There are questions about
your higher destiny that ache, and distract,
and agonize you at times Let no one sup
| pose that because you are busy all day with
hardware, or drygoods, or groceries, or grain,
that your thoughts are no longer than your
| yard stick, and stop at the brass headed nails
| of the store counter. When you speak once
about religious things you think 5000 times
They call you worldling. You are not a
worldling.. OF course you are industrious
and keep busy out you have had your eyes
opened to the realities of the next world.
| You are not a fool. You know better
than any one can tell. You know that
| few years at most will wind up your earthly
engagements, and that you will take resi-
| dence in a distant sphere where all your
n business nees f5n ot t 9e Your head aches
about great religious subjects. You go down
the street with your eyes fixed on the pave
ment, oblivious Of the passing multitudes,
your thoughts gone on eternal expedition
You wonder if the Bible is true, how much of
it is literal and how much is figuratve law,
if Christ be God, if there is anything like ret
rlbutlon, If you are immortal, if a resll'-
rection will ever take place, what the occupa-
tion of your departed kindred is, what you
will be 10000 years from now. With a cult
mad Of
fire with agitations of soul Oh, this solitary
anxiety of your whole lifetime You have
sold goods to or bought them from Christian
people for ten years, and they have never
whispered one word of spiritual counsel You
have passed up and down the aiSes of
| churches with men who knew that you had
| no hope of heaven, and talked about the
weather and about your physical health, and
| about everything but that concerning which
| you most wanted to hear them speak viz
| your everlasting spirit. Times without num-
Der you have felt in your heart, if you have
not uttered it with your lips: mo man cares
| Tor my soul.n
There have been times when you We're espe-
cially pliable on the great subject of re-
| ligion. 1t was 80, for instance, after YOU had
| lost your property. You had great many
letters blowing you up for being unfortmate.
You showed that there had been Il concatena-
| ton OF circumstances and that your insol-
NcllCy was ldulG OI yours. our creditors
| talked to you as though they would have 100
cents ou the dollar or-your life ,s2Protest after
protest tumbled in on your desk Men who
used to take your hand with both OF theirs
and shake it violently now pass YOU on the
street with an almost imperceptible nod AZ
ter six or eight hours of scalding business
anxiety you go home and you shut the door,
and throw yourself on the sofa and you feel
in state of despair. You wish that some
one would come in and break up the gloom.
Everything seems to be against you-the
bank against you. Your creditors against
you. Your friends suddenly become criti-
cal against you All the past against you
All the future against you. You make re-
proachful outcry: ''No man cares for my
| Soul!n
There was another occasion when all the
doors of your heart swung open for sacred
'HsGenceS. A bright light went out IN Won,
household. Within three or four days there
were compressed sickness death. ~ so ..,'
You were so lonely that 100 people coming
into the house did not break up the soHtari-
ness, You were almost killed with the
domestic calamity. A few formal perfume.
tory words of consolation were uttered on the
stairs before you went to the grave; but you
wanted some one to come and talk over the
whole matter, and recte the alleviations, and
decipher the lessons of the dark bereavement.
| NO one came Many a time you could not
sleep until or O'Clock i'll the morning, and
then your sleep was a troubled dream, in
which we're enacted all the scene of sickness,
and parting, and dissolution, Oh, what days
and nights they were! No man seemed 10
ARE for your soul.
There was another occasion when youI
heart was very susceptible There was great
awakening. There were hundreds of people
who pressed into the kingdom of God; some
OF them acquaintance, some business assocl-
ates yes, perhaps, some members of your own
family were baptised by sprinkling or INNER
sion Christian people thought of you, and
they called at your store, but you were out on
business. They stopped at your house; you
had gone around to spend the evening. They
sent kindly message to you; somehow
by accident, you did not getit. The lifeboat
OF the Gospel swept through the surf and
everybody seemed TO get in but you. Every
thing seemed to escape you One touch of
personal sympathy would have pushed you
into the kingdom of God. When on commun.
ion day your friends went in, and your SONS
and daughters went into the church, you
buried your face in your handkerchief and
sobbcd: why am / left out! Everybody
seems to get saved but me. No man cares for
my soul
Hearken to revelation have to make. Ia
Is a startling statement 1t win SO surprise
you that must prove it as | go on. Instead
Of this total Indifference all about you in re,
gard to your soul, | have to tell you that
heaven, earth and hell are after your immor1
tai spirit--earth to cheat it, hell to destroy it,
heaven to redeem it. Although you may bd
stranger TO the Christians in this house,
their faces would glow and their hearts would
bound if they saw you make one step heaven
ward. So intricate and far reaching is this
web of sympathy that | could by one word
rouse great many prayers in your behalf
No one cares for your soul! Why, one signal
of distress on your part would thrill this audi
ence with HOIV pXritnmnnt If hOat In nxy
harbor should get in distress, from the men Of
war, and from the sloops, and from the
steamers the flying paddles would pull to the
rescue. And il now YOU would life one signal